Now that Cork have formally handed down their national football league crown to Dublin – having won the last three back-to-back – both the timing and purpose of this Saturday’s All-Ireland Under-21 final is heightened.
Because now, says captain Damien Cahalane, is when Cork could do with winning back this title, a reward not just for their own consistency, but for the hopes of the county seniors going into the championship summer.
Cork are the most successful county at this level, with 11 under-21 titles in all, the last coming in 2009 – yet face a Galway team in Saturday’s final at the Gaelic Grounds who were crowned champions just two years ago, and have similar motivations when considering the bigger summer picture.
Cahalane admits he didn't actually watch Dublin's win over Tyrone on Sunday, but then Cork can't feel too upset about not being there to defend their title all the way to the line: "I wouldn't say Cork would be too downhearted about it, no, having won three league titles in a row," he says. "But definitely, I think, it'll give a lift to the county football prospects if we win on Saturday. And Cork football isn't getting a huge amount of support at the moment, so if we did win on Saturday maybe it'd encourage people to come to the games a bit more."
Motivation
This time last year Cahalane was concentrating more on his hurling, but opted out of Jimmy Barry-Murphy's panel at the start of this season, motivated by the prospect of helping Cork to a third successive Munster Under-21 title, and also rowing in full time with the 2013 ambitions of football manager Conor Counihan.
“I suppose the main factor why I chose football this year was the under-21 campaign. You are missing out on a lot of the national hurling league if you are footballing with the under-21s at the start of the year. But I went with football this year, and really enjoying it.
“You kind of get the best out of yourself when you are able to concentrate on one. You have to take everything into account before you make a decision. These things are big decisions. I love my time last year with the hurlers and learned so much and I can’t thank them enough and who’s to say I won’t go back hurling with them in the future, but for the moment I am footballing and that’s my sole focus.
"For me it's tough enough to combine the two at senior level, not to mind throw in four more teams if you are including your club at under-21 level and your two county
Versatility
Cahalane's strength is both his physicality and versatility, having played at full back, centre back and midfield during Cork's run to Saturday's final: he credits the management team under John Cleary for maintaining a freshness to his game, and also the willingness of Counihan not to push the boat out too far.
“Definitely, because we were able to concentrate on our job with the under-21s. There is myself, Tom Clancy, John O’Rourke and Brian Hurley seniors at the moment. It would be difficult going from one to the other, playing different systems, things like that.
"The main difference between the football and the hurling would be in the physicality of it. Footballers seem a lot bigger. I suppose there wouldn't be too many differences in terms of how they train. Both teams train very hard but I suppose the one difference is that footballers are a bit bulkier so I kind of had a bit of work to do at the start of the year, trying to put on a bit of muscle and that."
Relegation
Naturally, Cahalane was sorry to see his former team-mates relegated to Division One B, but doesn't necessarily view it as all bad: "They were unfortunate to go down in that it was such a close league. But Division One B will probably suit them in that they can try a lot more things next year."
As for Saturday’s opposition, Cork won’t need any reminder of how Galway upset them at this level two years ago, beating them in the semi-final before winning the title outright: “Galway are up there in terms of producing skilled footballers. And they’ve just beat a Kildare side who were favourites for the All-Ireland.”
